Ellen Smets, professor of Medical Communication

3 April 2014

Dr E.M.A. Smets (1962) has been appointed professor of Medical Communication at the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Medicine (AMC-UvA).

Photo: Dirk Gillissen

Ellen Smets conducts research into the communication between patients and
care providers, particularly in medical specialist care. Developments in
healthcare, such as cost control, a focus on errors, increased patient autonomy
and accessibility of medical information, have led to increased social interest
in doctor-patient communication. Smets's research group studies the processes
that promote or obstruct the exchange of information between doctors and their
patients. In this way, she explores how the exchange of information arises from
and/or contributes to patient participation, trust in the doctor,
decision-making and quality of life. A particular focus is the provision of
information in the context of oncology and genetics.

Knowledge about the mechanisms linking communicative behaviour and positive
outcomes is still limited. By continually registering the psychophysiological
reactions of patients and/or their care providers during interactions, both
face-to-face and virtual, there is a better possibility of revealing these
mechanisms than through the customary formats of self-reporting and/or behaviour
observation. The goal for the coming years is to develop expertise in the use of
psychophysiological measurements as part of communication research.

An important incentive for and benefit of this line of research is that the
resulting knowledge can be used towards the education and training of both
medical students and medical professionals.

Smets has worked at the AMC-UvA since 1992, where she has been the principal
investigator for Medical Communication research since 2007. Smets is vice-chair
of the Association for Researchers in Psychology and Health (ARPH),
the Dutch representative for the European Association for Communication in
Healthcare (EACH) and sits on the committee for Psychosocial Research of the
Dutch Cancer Society's Scientific Council. Results of her research have
been published in Patient Education and Counseling, American
Journal of Medical Genetics and Annals of Oncology, amongst
others.

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